Thank you all for joining me today for this celebration of my first book, Seasons of Imagination, being released. I know this was an impromptu gathering, though you can’t say I didn’t give you hints it was coming up. Sorry about that bump in the red carpet that I just couldn’t flatten out. I hope not too many of you twisted your ankle or anything. You just need to be careful..

Be careful! Careful!!! CAREFUL!!!

Sorry!

Of course the person bringing in the cake had to be the one who tripped. Sorry, I do still have some left over hors d’oeuvre from yesterday’s Cover Reveal, so help yourself. I hope they’re not stale.

DISCLAIMER:Now, once again this is a work of ‘Fiction’. Now before you start reading I would like to give a Shout Out to Linda G. Hill! Thanks for providing me with a new perspective on how to make sense of these prompts! It is very much appreciated! 🙂

Once again, this post was inspired to me by ‘The Daily Post‘ October 17th Prompt – Urgent. Enjoy!

2:04AM: ‘FINALLY! I KNOW WHAT TO WRITE!’

‘URGENT!’ The word echoed through my mind. You know, the worst part wasn’t the word itself. Oh no, I had become accustomed to living my life with a degree of urgency. But, the reminder that every morning there is another outstanding bill, that is long overdue never failed to but a damper on my mood.

I always knew that being an adult wasn’t going to be easy, that’s what they all told me…

Let me start by saying I’m afraid of ghosts. At least other people’s ghosts. Their ghost stories scare me. I think it must be the unpredictability of them, because I’m fine with writing my own ghost stories.

For me, a ghost story has to have a romantic element for it to be enjoyable. Like in the movie Ghost, which is arguably the most famous purely paranormal romance out there, there has to be a feeling of comfort for me to be able to watch it or read it. I remember the first time I tried to read Stephen King’s The Shining – I couldn’t. I got as far as the twins in the hallway and I had to put it down. Yes, I was only about fourteen years old at the time, but it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I was able to read the whole thing. And I still look for a spooky set of twins every time I stay in a hotel. Especially if it’s an old one.

It’s funny, I used to love to be scared by certain movies and books (but not too scared, Mr. King) but now I’d really rather not. Is that growing up? Or growing old?

The “Ghost” prompt is brought to you by Barbara at teleportingweena. If you don’t already know her, please pop over and have a read!

To find the rules for Just Jot It January, click here and join in today. It’s never too late! And don’t forget to ping back your January 29th post here!

There are many writers out there who craft their stories based on a “what if” situation. They will come up with a scenario, such as “what if a meteor hit the earth?” or “what if a guy goes to the store and finds all the cars in the parking lot stacked on top of each other?”

These two scenarios may sound very similar, but they’re not. Yes, both start with the same three words, but the difference is this: the first revolves around a plot. The plot has yet to be populated by humans (assuming there are humans left alive after the meteor hit). The second scenario already has a human in it. Here may be the difference between a plot-driven story and a character-driven one.

For me, populating a story that contains a story first (aforementioned meteor crashing down) is near impossible. I can’t wrap my head around a crowd of people who have been plunked down in the middle of a situation. But give me a person to work with first, and I’m off and running. What any ONE person would do in a strange situation is fairly unique to that one person. That, to me, gives a story its excitement and its hook, if you will.

This whole topic came about when I started to think about how difficult it is for me to write a short story. Given a plot, I may be able to bang out a few words. But when I get my head wrapped around a character I find it hard to let go after just a few hundred words. I get attached to my characters very easily, and once I have them in my head I don’t just want to tell a bit of their story, I want to tell it all. Before I know it, I’m well on my way into a novel.

When I first began writing, I belonged to a Yahoo group in which a bunch of writers developed characters who not only interacted with one another, they told each other stories of their lives before they met one another. Quite like anyone would in real life. So I’m thinking about writing a character on my fiction blog rather than attempting and consistently failing to write short stories. Just a thought at the moment.

The character-driven story is a subject very dear to my heart. My characters become almost like family to me, much as the characters do in some of the novels I read. Especially the ones I’m sad to put down when they’re finished.

I’d like to hear from the writers out there – do you write character-driven or plot-driven stories? Have you ever ventured out of your comfort zone and tried the other one?

And from the readers – have you ever become attached to a character that was so well written, you never wanted their story to end?

The subtle art of foreshadowing takes skill – some may say great skill – for if it’s done without, a work of fiction can be fatally predictable. After all, who wants to read or watch something when it’s painfully obvious exactly how the story will conclude?

For me, there’s nothing better than a story with a twist. Being strung along to believe one thing to find out that what I thought was true never was is part of the art of foreshadowing. It can be done well (The Sixth Sense) in which case the foreshadowing was so subtle as to not be there, or it can be done wrong. Maybe you can come up with a good example. They tend to be the most forgettable stories out there.

I’m hoping to get some kind of twist out of the fiction A-Z story I’m writing alongside this. If you’re reading it, I hope you’ll stick around to the end to let me know how I did. In the meantime, I’m looking for any accidental foreshadowing that already exists, since I had no idea where the story was going as I began it. I think I have an idea now.

How much predictability is too much for you? I’m wondering if there’s anyone out there who likes to know the end before they get there.